How to achieve best soft hand feel on t-shirts with plastisol inks ?

discharge underbase will help allot with softhand feel.
controlling ink deposit is key, you want minimal ink deposit (using high mesh counts helps).
there is also a 'soft hand' additive you can use.

If you want a soft hand feel without having to do the discharge under base, consider using an ink like Wilflex and mixing with their Fashion Soft Base. You can pantone match the colors from a couple of their plastisol systems and then add the soft base for a pretty nice hand. We do this for a lot of our customers and they really like it. We also run through higher mesh counts 230-305's on almost everything which helps even more. The discharge under base works great, but if you don't want to mess around with that I highly recommend the fashion soft base.

Yup - fashion soft hand additive and 230+ mesh screens give great plastisol prints.

Had the same issue with Hoodies... especially if I had to Print flash print.. ink starts to stack up. I decided to think outside the box. I now print my own transfers. When I press my homemade transfers onto a shirt there is next to no feel. Been doing it for a while now and the customers seem to like it.

red514 said:

discharge underbase will help allot with softhand feel.
controlling ink deposit is key, you want minimal ink deposit (using high mesh counts helps).
there is also a 'soft hand' additive you can use.

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when you discharge the base though, do you have to flash the **** out of it to get the moisture out or do you print plastisol right on top?

red514 said:

discharge underbase will help allot with softhand feel.
controlling ink deposit is key, you want minimal ink deposit (using high mesh counts helps).
there is also a 'soft hand' additive you can use.

Click to expand...

Even I want to know that after discharge underbase I need to use flash or will print plastisol right on top ?

TheBradley said:

If you want a soft hand feel without having to do the discharge under base, consider using an ink like Wilflex and mixing with their Fashion Soft Base. You can pantone match the colors from a couple of their plastisol systems and then add the soft base for a pretty nice hand. We do this for a lot of our customers and they really like it. We also run through higher mesh counts 230-305's on almost everything which helps even more. The discharge under base works great, but if you don't want to mess around with that I highly recommend the fashion soft base.

Click to expand...

hi thanks for the reply and since I am new to this business I have some questions for you,

1. Fashion soft base is the underbase ink which we use before plastisol right ?

2. I am worried about their mixing system. Is there mixing system pretty easy or does mixing the pigments take some time to get used to? Are there any problems you encountered when you began ?

3. For discharge underbase what is the mesh count required ?


I am new to this business and need experts advice

Thank you,

Crazy Tharun said:

hi thanks for the reply and since I am new to this business I have some questions for you,

1. Fashion soft base is the underbase ink which we use before plastisol right ?

2. I am worried about their mixing system. Is there mixing system pretty easy or does mixing the pigments take some time to get used to? Are there any problems you encountered when you began ?

3. For discharge underbase what is the mesh count required ?


I am new to this business and need experts advice

Thank you,

Click to expand...

1- The fashion soft base is also a plastisol ink, you would use it as your under base, flash and then print your colors on top.

3- i believe the ink manufacturer would have suggested mesh counts for that ink. i don't work with it but from what i've read you want a decent amount of ink deposit. so i'm guessing a lower mesh count is better but i have seen very fine halftone dots done with discharge so i'm guessing a 280 isn't an issue.
when printing discharge, i believe you just flash the underbase as normal, the reaction may not take place until it is passed through the dryer.

Crazy Tharun said:

2. I am worried about their mixing system. Is there mixing system pretty easy or does mixing the pigments take some time to get used to? Are there any problems you encountered when you began ?

Click to expand...

the mixing systems are very good and not hard if you are paying attention and careful. it's all by weight, you use a digital scale. the only problems i encountered is when my calculations were not exact.

Crazy Tharun said:

Even I want to know that after discharge underbase I need to use flash or will print plastisol right on top ?

Click to expand...

you will need to use a flash, if you don't the ink will contaminate your top colours (turning them pastel). same as regular ink

First if your considering discharge make sure you have proper ventilation and personal protection.

IMO the best mixing systems are those with ready to use inks. If your slightly off with the pigment systems there can be a huge difference then your targeted result where as with the premixed system a small variance can still result in a usable ink.

Reduced inks high mesh can result in a soft print. A 110-156 with a single hit uses more ink then a 230 with a print flash print. When I plan on a print flash print or want a light hand print 205-272 is what I use with a 1/1 coating. That's the other think I haven't seen mentioned is a thin stencil. If you have a high mesh and a thick stencil it will still result in a heavy hand. Get some test material and practice to see what works best for you.

sben763 said:

First if your considering discharge make sure you have proper ventilation and personal protection.

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Hi Sean, thanks for the reply I need some clarifications from you

1. is discharge inks are harmful ? you mentioned about ventilation and personal protection please explain me on this.

sben763 said:

Reduced inks high mesh can result in a soft print. A 110-156 with a single hit uses more ink then a 230 with a print flash print.

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2. What is reduced inks ? and what is that 110-156 and 230 ? Sorry I am totally new to this business.....

Discharge often contains formaldehyde - nasty stuff. So ventilation is really needed.

Additives are added to inks to change their properties - maybe you want your ink to puff up, so you add a puff additive. Well a soft hand or fashion additive makes the plastisol ink feel softer - it reduces the concentration.

We measure our screens with mesh count. A normal screen may be 156. Higher meshes, like 230 or 270 will lay down less ink and also allow or more detail. Less ink gives a softer feel for plastisol.

20vK said:

Additives are added to inks to change their properties - maybe you want your ink to puff up, so you add a puff additive. Well a soft hand or fashion additive makes the plastisol ink feel softer - it reduces the concentration.

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Hi Richie Rich thanks for the detailed info, need little clarification here,

1. Assume here I am not going with the discharge underbase, I am going with fashion soft underbase, and my art is 1 color(Blue) and when I buy from manufacturer what should ask him? blue color plastisol and blue fashion soft base ?

or

2. I should buy only 1 blue plastisol and mix with fashion soft base, how it works ? need some info here, I am really sorry as I said I am totally new to this...

No problem!

You buy the plastisol ink as normal. You can buy any colour you like.

But also buy fashion soft additive.

Get yourself a separate container - you then mix in the additive to the plastisol ink. It will have instructions on the additive. Maybe upto 20%..... This makes the ink softer... Don't mix it all, just what you need for the print job.

This way, you can make any colour plastisol ink a "fashion soft ink" just by adding the fashion soft reducer/additive.

Does that make sense?let me know if you have any more questions

20vK said:

Get yourself a separate container - you then mix in the additive to the plastisol ink. It will have instructions on the additive. Maybe upto 20%..... This makes the ink softer... Don't mix it all, just what you need for the print job.

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Hi Richie again thank you so much,

as u said when we mix additive with plastisol ink then we print once and again we need to print with normal plastisol ink ? (without additive mix)

No - you just use the ink with the additive

if you use normal ink after, it would give a standard harder hand / harder feel